Elton John had been open about his bisexuality for years, but married Renate Blauel, a German recording engineer, on Valentine's Day, 1984, was widely treated as a cover-up for his homosexuality.

The early Eighties was a difficult time for John, who developed bulimia and continued to battle a drug addiction.

He and Blauel divorced in 1988, and John found the freedom to admit that he was "comfortable" being gay. He later said of his ex-wife: "She is the classiest woman I have ever met but it wasn't to be. I was living a lie".